Daily Times

Wasting no chance, major opposition parties – Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) – Tuesday threw barbs at the government over its policies causing Pakistan’s ranking to drop 16 places in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) of the Transparency International (TI) for 2021 compared to the previous year, ranking 140 out of 180 countries.

They also demanded that Mirza Shahzad Akbar, who had stepped down on Monday as adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior, should make his assets public. In CPI 2021, Pakistan scored 28 out of 100.

Commenting on the report, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly and PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, in a statement, said for the second time in a row, the TI had testified that “the Imran Niazi government was corrupt and a thief.”

“The international body report is an indictment. So, the corrupt rulers must resign. The country cannot afford their looting anymore. In Imran Niazi’s tenure, Pakistan is making rapid progress in corruption and the world is saying that the prime minister is a thief,” he said.

Shehbaz Sharif said it was unfortunate that Pakistan had slipped 16 places further in the TI’s Global Corruption Perceptions Index.

“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s honest and capable leadership had reduced corruption in Pakistan,” he said, adding that the PML-N’s good governance, transparency and legal reforms had improved Pakistan’s ranking by 23 spots. “It was unfortunate that the ruling government had wasted all the efforts,” he maintained.

The PML-N leader said during his party’s government, Pakistan’s ranking had improved to 117, which had simultaneously enhanced Pakistan’s prestige in the world. He said since 2019, corruption had mounted every year in the PTI’s government.

“Never had it happened that Pakistan’s ranking dropped by 14 places,” he said.

Speaking to reporters at the party’s secretariat in Islamabad along with the party spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb and others, PML-N Vice President Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the TI report had actually exposed Imran Khan-led government.

“The person who used to call others thieves has now been declared a thief by the TI. Inflation and corruption has reached record high in Pakistan”, he said while referring to PM Imran Khan.

Abbasi also claimed that Shahzad Akbar used to hold lengthy press conferences.

“He should make public what assets he held before taking the government position and after resigning. He should reveal all the details.”

Abbasi asked him to tell the nation whether Prime Minister Imran Khan had removed him or he himself stepped down.

He said Shahzad Akbar should tell what evidence he had collected in three and a half years against the PML-N leaders.

Abbasi said after three years, Imran Khan had realized that ‘the child’ was incapable, adding that the former adviser to the PM must face accountability and answer all the questions that the opposition leaders had given. He further said people were bearing the brunt of the government’s incompetence.

Reacting to the TI’s report, PPP Vice President Sherry Rehman said Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index was a charge sheet against the government.

“In 2020, Pakistan was ranked 124th in the Corruption Perceptions Index worldwide. Within a year, Pakistan has been ranked 140th,” she said in a statement.

The government, claiming to end corruption, has left 16 countries behind in corruption, Sherry Rehman said. On the other hand, the resignation of the accountability advisor is a proof that corruption has not decreased but increased, she said.

“Accountability is only for targeting the opponents. International institutions are now uncovering the corruption of this government,” she added.